Site:

Christian, my 5-year old son, just beat his first videogame from start to finish. He beat Roboblitz in just 5 days of playing. So great! Talk about a proud father ... the torch has officially been passed.

Here's a great article on Chris Sligh with lots of new information from an interview he did with a local paper there in Greenville. Some interesting stuff, here's a clip:

Sligh said he knew his days were numbered when judges Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell panned his performance Tuesday of The Police's "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic," citing problems with being out of tempo with the song.

Before Wednesday's results show, Sligh said he bet fellow "Idol" contesant Phil Stacy $50 that it would be himself who was to be eliminated (Stacy and contestant Haley Scarnato were announced as two of the bottom three vote-getters along with Sligh).

"I just had this feeling in my heart that I was going home," Sligh said.

"I told Phil that I was going home, and he was like, 'No way, there's no way you're going home before me.'"

After the results, Sligh reprised "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" for the customary farewell performance. As he sang, he hugged the remaining contestants and interrupted the song to tell Stacy, "You owe me 50 bucks."

Sligh said he didn't realize the show -- which had run several minutes past its 30-minute time slot -- was still on the air and that his comment would be heard by millions watching at home.

The week before, eliminated contestant Stephanie Edwards' performance was cut off because of time constraints.

Don't know how well you can read this, but it's the white board notes from a quick brainstorming meeting I had with a couple interns about Student Leadership. I've got an article due to Ministry Toolbox later today, and this is the skeleton outline. Look for it Tuesday, I think?

Here's the shots from the final stop on the road trip - we ate at the Seal Beach pier at Ruby's Diner. Enjoyed some fun talks and discussions the whole day, great relationship building, and packed in a ton of stuff. I'm so thankful for our interns because they give and give to our church, and of course, often under-appreciated like most youth workers. Thanks to our inters - let's do another one of these in June!

We went to a taping of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? in Manhattan Beach after grabbing cupcakes, and had a blast. They didn't allow cameras or phones in the studio, so no official pictures of the event. Funny how Hollywood magic happens in the nooks and crannies of normal life out here. The studio was basically in a office complex, by a hotel and mini-malls.

It was great - the first guy won a Segway and $25,000 - though he was up to like half a million bucks before he lost almost everything. Then the second contestant got this huge introduction and everything, then lost on the first question. Priceless, even though the filming took a bit too long with lots of reshoots and pickup shots. All in all a great 3rd stop on the circuit - the episode airs in April, and I think we'll be featured in it quite a bit going in/out of commercials. Fun!

The second stop on the intern adventure was Sprinkles, a gourmet cupcake stop in Beverly Hills. We were running a big short on time, so we just picked them up to eat in line at the studio. Annie won a shirt because she guessed the closest a) how many cupcakes we ordered, times b) the amount per cupcake. Delicious!

We went up the long drive to LA (about 45 miles = 2.5 hours) and our first stop was the amazing Griddle Cafe in Hollywood. Famous for their pancakes, which cover the entire plate and are stacked 4 inches high. Pictured is the Oreo Stack ... I had "Gone Shrimping" a crazy mixture of egg whites, shrimp and some crazy green sauce. So good.

Microsoft® Game Studios and Epic Games, Inc. today announced the Gears of War 2007 Global Xbox LIVE Tournament, presented by the World Cyber Games, offering gamers the opportunity to curb-stomp and chainsaw their way to the Grand Final in Prague, Czech Republic. The tournament promises nonstop thrills over Xbox LIVE.

Gears of War players across the globe will have the opportunity to compete in ranked matches on Xbox LIVE for four weeks of leaderboard play. The top 11 finalists in the world with the highest individual scores will receive the grand prize, a trip for two to Prague—the setting that influenced the game’s “Destroyed Beauty” scenic imagery—to compete in the Grand Final in July. The grand prize includes a four-day, three-night trip to Prague with round-trip coach air transportation for the winner and a guest, standard hotel accommodations, basic ground transportation in Prague, and a $200 Visa gift card.

The top four eligible ranked players from each participating country will win a three-day, two-night trip to their country’s 2007 World Cyber Games National Championship event. The trip includes round-trip transportation for the winner, standard hotel accommodations, and a $300 Visa gift card. Secondary prizes include an Xbox 360™ package—boasting an Xbox 360 Pro System console, Viva Piñata™, Project Gotham Racing® 3, Xbox LIVE Arcade Unplugged Volume 1, Kameo: Elements of Power™, and a 12-month Xbox LIVE subscription, as well as Gears of War bonuses such as faceplates.

Pretty cool stuff we've been working on behind closed doors at SYM the past few weeks - we're ready to take the wrapper off of PICK 6.

Basically you can drag and drop 6 of your favorite resources from Simply Youth Ministry and get them for one low price. We're going to roll this out officially next week, but it's live and it works right now. Hit this link, hover over the resources menu and click Pick 6 to give it a whirl.

Fun technology behind it, I think it's going to be pretty popular. Check it out just to play with it, too!

Next Generation has a cool little update on the status of Halo 3. Here's a clip from their 2-page report:

Undoubtedly, there’s an esprit de corps that’s evolved; one of those emotional group hugs that cannot be manufactured, something that is entirely natural for people in an extraordinary time and place.

“It’s interesting how people react internally,” says O’Connor. “Everyone is a part of the progress that’s being made. We’ll have meetings on Fridays where people will do a ‘show and tell’ if they have something cool to reveal. Maybe a new water system or a new type of explosion. That’s where you sense the internal excitement. That’s where you see a bunch of videogame developers really getting excited.”

The pressure is on for Bungie to deliver an experience par excellence. Anything other than a 95% experience is going to be labeled a disappointment. O‘Connor believes the game will stand the tough test of media and consumer scrutiny. “Our technology is second to none and our art style is second to none. I’m very, very confident it’s going to be one of, if not the most beautiful Xbox 360 game. We’re going to get compared to the best that’s out there - we’re going to be compared to Gears and Resistance. But I’m not going to sit here and say, ‘oh our game is going to kick their ass’. I hate that kind of talk.”

This originally was on Fast Company about businesses, but it'd be interesting to use the same logic to see what it reveals about your church culture.

Why should managers be bothered by any of this? Who cares where staff get their coffee, so long as it helps keep them awake and they are back at their desks working again before too long? Our Washington blogger has already hinted at why this matters. It has to do with workplace culture.

Until recently, when managers heard the word culture, they reached for their sick-bags. Costs, sales and profits did not strike many people as being particularly "cultural" concepts. But listen to what the 1,200 international executives surveyed by the management consultancy Bain have just revealed in its biannual "management tools and trends study": nine out of 10 say that corporate culture is as important as strategy in achieving business success.

Who your people drink coffee with, and where, is important. You may not think you need to promote the rise of "café society" internally, but a coffee culture could be beneficial - for collaboration, networking, and cross-fertilisation. It is this sort of so-called "soft" issue that has forced its way to the top of management's agenda.

"Executives would probably not have been nearly as interested in the question of culture 10 years ago, and would certainly not have talked publicly about it," says Darrell Rigby, a senior partner at Bain and leader of the management tools research since its launch in 1993.

Talking to Stephen about his church search and discovered some of the questions he is asking possible churches in the process. He's interviewing them as much as they are interviewing him, which I respect very much. Here's his list of questions, reprinted with his permission:

QUESTIONS TO ASK A POTENTIAL CHURCH

1. What is it that really makes your church distinctive?2. What are the non-essentials that you look for in hiring staff?3. How is the church as a whole governed? Elders? Deacons? Both? Are there committees?4. What were three stand outs (in terms of success) that happened last year?5. What are the things that YOU personally look for and value in the next Middle School Pastor?6. Why is the Student Ministry an important part of the church? Why is Middle School so important?7. What is your picture of success in the Student Ministry? In the Middle School Ministry?8. Is there a process for staff ‘evaluations’ with the Student Ministry staff? How does that look?9. What kind of resources will the Middle School Pastor have? Interns? Secretary/assistant? Budget for the ministry?10. How much will be expected of the next Middle School Pastor administratively / organizationally?11. As of now, how many students are involved in the Middle School Ministry?12. Do you believe the church is more evangelistic or discipleship driven? How about Student Ministries? Or, is there a good balance?13. When you look at the Student Ministry, what strengths do you clearly see? What weaknesses do you see? From that, what are your 3 greatest needs?14. How do you get things approved at the church? Is there a long process for things or is it a flexible environment?15. Who would I be accountable to as far as staff over my department?16. What percentage of large group attendees are also in a small group? Are small groups a strong part/value in the Middle School ministry? In the Student Ministry as a whole?17. How significant/big is the volunteer base for Middle School currently?18. Is there currently any type of ministry within Middle School that reaches out to the Parents of the students?19. Will there be other pastoral responsibilities on the Middle School Pastor such as ‘pastor on call’ or ‘hospital visitation?’20. How does the leadership team work? How long has the Student Ministries had that asset?21. Are there upcoming building plans for the church / student ministry?22. Does the church value families going to church together? Do students go to church w/ their parents or are students in their weekend service the same time parents are in their service?23. Will there be someone who is pouring into me as I pour myself into others?

Just finished up the 47th Simply Youth Ministry podcast - it'll be up on the site late today (in a perfect world, so we'll see). Good show - Jana from the student ministries team joined us today since Natalie/Jake couldn't make it.

In the office today we were talking about those Tootsie Roll pops. The answer from About.com:

Nobody seems to know how this rumor got started, least of all the folks at Tootsie Roll Industries in Chicago, Illinois, who have been politely deflecting mail-in requests for free Tootsie Roll Pops ever since the 1930s. They maintain there was never any sort of official promotion or contest associated with Tootsie Pop wrappers. Where the notion came from remains a mystery.

Actually, there's more to the mistakenly revered wrapper than just a star. The illustration shows an American Indian shooting an arrow at a star, and it's that Indian most people mention when they speak of the legend. I'm told about one-third of all Tootsie Pop wrappers sport the design. Why? For variety, apparently. Not much of a mystery there.

I'm not sure how commonly this happens, but readers have also reported to me that some independent grocers do unofficially honor the supposed free Tootsie Pop offer when kids bring the Indian wrappers into their stores for redemption. But it's neither sanctioned nor financed by Tootsie Roll Industries.

I liked this article in Relevant Magazine this week, a good reminder we all need to be in community if we are to succeed.

One of the greatest complaints heard from those of us in the post-college vacuum stems from the feeling of being alone—really alone. We just left the world where you live with three other people in order to afford rent and see another thousand or so every day on campus—where “résumé builder” activities force us into contact with dozens of unexpected people and class projects turn into uninvited bonding experiences with miscellaneous classmates. We live in a world where, as “grown ups” we’re supposed to find our own way to work, live in our own place and decide for ourselves who we want to spend time with. We move (or our friends move) to find jobs, and suddenly we find ourselves falling through the cracks of the relationship world. No classmates, no family, no school friends. Just us and whoever we manage to collect.

Now, don’t get me wrong, most of us can spark a conversation with an interesting acquaintance and sometimes manage to turn it into coffee or a date, but most of us still feel alone—if we let ourselves.

In college, I lived with four other girls. I was highly involved in my church’s campus ministry, and pretty much every spare moment I had outside the classroom (and the homework drill) I had somebody to talk to.

Just got this message from Natalie's mom - she's doing something great to help Chris Sligh out and I'm in. Sending my $20 now ...

I got the chance to talk with Chris Sligh at last weeks Show and wasable to ask him what he was needing and how we could pray for him.He said; he had only been able to see his wife two times in the six weeks he was out here doing the show and he was in need of a place for her to stay while she was in Hollywood during the week. The spouses can not stay with the contestants. So on Tuesday I will be picking up Chris Sligh's sweet southern accented wife, Sarah, and taking her to our home in the Valley. We have also received confirmation of a donated car for her to use while she is staying with us.

So here is the "Big Ask." Chris' parents are missionaries in Germany and they have not been able to afford to come see him perform. If Chris has not been voted off by Wednesday April 11th, the thought was to try and defray the costs for his parents to see the Show the following week (country week) April 17th and 18th. I believe I could get them a host family out this way, but the cost of two round trip plane tickets are around $4,000.

I was wondering if you would join me in a Kingdom Assignment for Chris and his faithful family by matching my $20 dollars. That would take 200 people to match my $20 for $4,000. If you are interested or if you know of others that might be interested here is the info on where to send your matched gift.

Your name will be added to a card that will be presented to Chris and his wife on April 11th if he makes it through. You might want to vote for him, too. If you do send a check and Chris does not make it through, the moneys will go toward bringing his parents out for the finale or one of the AI concerts this summer.

Want to help? Tell 'em Josh sent ya over.

JG

UPDATE: I've set up a PayPal account that accepts donations (send donations to josh@theforce.net via PayPal). 100% of what's given will be given over to the Kingdom Assignment project. So fun!

Natalie has finally blogged about going to American Idol last week - we discussed things this morning and I told her the "blogging window" was closed if she didn't blog before this week's show. Hit the link for some great pictures and a fun behind the scenes look at Idol, recorded just in time before the opportunity was gone.

We've just posted what I think is a pretty cool new idea we had for the next SYM catalog. Are you an artist? Like to doodle? Amateur photographer? Time to get your work in print. Here's a clip, head here for the whole scoop there for submissions:

Want to be in our next catalog? Starbucks is "Now Warming" and we're "Now Accepting" all high-res photographs, art, illustrations & design...created by YOU.

Our heart behind this is to find out "What is youth ministry to you?". Show us a snapshot of your youth ministry through any means of creative expression...well, interpretive dance might be hard to capture in print. All submissions welcome. If you're not creative, include others in the process...extend it to your students to participate, or create something together in a small group setting. Create a wall mural in your youth room and take a picture of it for us - since that would be hard to ship - two birds with one stone, now your youth room looks sweet too.

They've been advertising the snot out of this new mini-series event on Discovery HD, and my friends, last night's premiere lived up to the hype.

An amazing look at our amazing planet earth. Some amazing footage, some animals I've never seen before, some truly brilliant moments. The shark coming out of the water eating that seal was stunning. My favorite side notes to the series are that the first mention of deforestation and global warming don't come until 14 minutes in and evolution isn't mentioned until minute 22. Both are surprisingly and thankfully brief.

TIME has a new article this week discussing the Bible being integrated back into schools. Here's a clip of it:

A BASIC QUESTION: WHY TEACH THE BIBLE and not comparative religion? It may not be necessary to provide Islam, Buddhism or Hinduism with equal time, but it seems misguided to ignore faiths that millions of Americans practice each day; and a glance at the headlines further argues for an omnibus course. Yet could a school demand that its already overloaded kids take one elective if they take the other? Concerns about whether a Bible Belt Christian teacher could in good conscience teach a religiously neutral Bible course also plagued me. Was high school Bible study one of those great ideas that vaporizes when exposed to air?

I visited New Braunfels high in early February. Jennifer Kendrick is committed to The Bible and Its Influence, but as a starting point rather than a blueprint. "It gives me ways to approach the topic, and then I put together something else," she says. She's unconvinced of its impartiality. "It will bring up Catholicism and mention Gandhi, but you can tell it's written as if I am a Protestant Christian teaching Protestant Christians."

Actually, she is a conservative Protestant. But her students don't know that, and nothing in the class I saw suggested it. Kendrick aces the compulsories--notes John Locke's use of the Beatitudes and Frank Zappa's riffs on "the meek shall inherit the earth," and ponders why various politicians have found it more convenient to attribute the "city on a hill" to Winthrop rather than to Matthew. When a student asks how Jesus could say the meek shall inherit the earth, when Christianity inherited it only after attaining tremendous strength, she suggests, "When he was giving the sermon, people took it not just as a physical award but an emotional or spiritual kind of award. Later on, when they became more powerful, say, in the Crusades or something, they weren't trying to inherit the earth. They were trying to take it over." Explaining why Jesus' famous sermon took place on a mount, she reminds the students that Matthew was writing for Jews, and a mount is where Moses received the Ten Commandments. "So, supposedly," she says, "Jesus is the new covenant, the new law, for the Jewish people."

The pedestrian walkway from the new parking lots on Saddleback's campus is almost done, Really starting to take shape, getting some paint and about ready to open. Maybe another month? Crazy structure to see on campus, one of the tallest buildings around, and on a pretty high spot on campus. Soon there will be enough parking again. Yeah!

Just read this article that mentions the PDYM book, thought it had some fair insights into our churches and youth ministries. Here's a clip:

First, you must have a vision. How can we do something if we don’t know what we want to do? Churches that are going to be world-class must have a clear vision of where they are going and what it is going to take to get there. Members of excellent churches don’t just show up on Sunday and say, “OK, here we are, let’s have church.” They have people in places that have responsibilities and those people show up and do their job without the pastor holding their hand, because they see the vision. If you fail to plan, then you can plan to fail.

Second, excellence requires something very few people have anymore — a burden. Churches that have a burden for something succeed in that area. If your church is burdened for unsaved people, then more than likely your church will have a great outreach ministry. Few people are burdened or broken anymore.

Last, excellence requires passion. A church of excellence is made up of people who are passionate about being in the presence of the King. They love their church, their pastor, their small group, everything about their church and they want to do God’s work more often than just on Sunday mornings.

If the only time you worship God is one hour on Sunday morning, then you are not passionate about God. He is just a convenience to you, not a priority.

This week's talk in Wildside is called TOAST - How Not to Get Burned, and before they left we took some funny shots of Kurt the Amateur Inventor trying to make toast in a new way. The students loved the shots during the intro to the message!

Haven't had a chance to blog too much this weekend - teaching all of the Wildside services this weekend because the volunteers and staff are away on a retreat for the weekend. Been fun so far, getting better each time. Here's a few pictures I'm using during the point on getting counsel, as in, these people didn't get counsel before getting their haircut. Fun!

The latest Purpose Driven Youth Ministry newsletter is out the door - if you don't subscribe you can check it out online, too. The main emphasis of this edition is the Student Leadership Conference this July and those new MADE videos I've been posting here all week.

Natalie got to go up to American Idol this week in Hollywood, even scored some backstage passes with her mom. So cool ... hahahaha, I need to preach on envy soon ... she just called to tell me the whole story. Anyhow, apparently, Idol favorite Chris Sligh has been on the blog before and knew about the love from all of us here in the OC.

After many, many racquetball games since I got it this past June, my sweet o3 Ektelon Red is about to enter a new chapter in it's illustrious life: the trash compactor. After a few games this morning, I noticed it was pretty severely cracked and then finally it completely split apart. Farewell, my good friend. Unless your still under warranty, and in that case I'll meet your twin brother very soon.

Just got word we can't all get together for the podcast this week, so we're pushing it back to Tuesday. Look for Episode 47 of the show then - in the meantime, send in your emails with questions or comments!

Shaun Blakeney, the high school pastor at Saddleback Church, has a new book out next month called Energy Zappers. Today in the office to celebrate the occassion, we did this dramatic reinactment of the cover. Enjoy!

Some significant improvements to the Simply Youth Ministry store rolled out today - we enhanced the search function to now display resources, articles, podcasts and more when you use any search term.

For example, if you search for "small groups" you'll get a resources spotlight, 6 additional suggested resources, 3 relevant articles and 1 somewhat relevant podcast. Cool, eh? You can then click through that page to see all, too. Give it a spin and comment how it works!

Just finished posting the first draft of a tutorial to help people get the most out of the new dynamic feeds from Simply Youth Ministry. We've got about 8 feeds or so right now, people can get blog headlines, podcasts, articles and new resource listings shot right into their browser or into the reader of their choice. Hope this little guide helps people take the leap and use some of the new integrated technology!

Tonight we celebrated our little Austin "asking Jesus into his heart" by going to Lone Star for some steak.

He's so young yet but his heart is so tender. It's really special for us - and as a family we're committed to celebrating any spiritual step forward our children make. Tonight after a great night out ... getting ready for bed, he said, "the next time Jesus comes into my heart can we go to the Jump House?"

I've got the feeling he might be getting "saved" many times in the next few years.

One of the biggest surprises this program has produced is that it’s put together a team of people that can spot a student in crisis. Most of the time, a member of this team can have one conversation with a girl and tell if she has the “syndrome”. From that point, we can provide a place that she can go where there are other people in the same situation. She receives hope and support. She recognizes that she is not alone.

We’ve seen several success stories. Kristen is married now with a baby on the way. It took several years, but she’s finally at the point where she believes she’s worthy of love. Hannah’s in college and works in children’s ministry. I see a difference in her attitude and the other day I saw her hug her dad and tell him she loved him. That was huge! Another girl isn’t out of high school yet, but she’s made the choice to not get in a serious relationship until she’s worked through her problems.

“Life Hurts, God Heals” has been a tremendous help in reaching girls with the “syndrome”. They continue to come through our doors and now that we recognize them, the number seems to be increasing. They need God. They need unconditional love. They need support. They need hope. For us this has been the way to make a difference.

Josh posted a brilliant set of descriptions of the folks that frequent the gym. I swear I see these people every morning! Here's an excerpt from 2 of them:

Cell Phone Treadmill Talker - If you've ever been to a gym, you've seen this person. They stay on the treadmill for no less than an hour and talk on their phone the whole time. Have you ever seen that ckip on the internet of the guy who gets his treadmill going super fast only to jump on it and fall flat on his face? Yep. Everytime I'm beside a CPTT I want to sneak up in front of them and turn the speed up so that happens to them.

Girl Who Never Works Out - I'm actually convinced that this girl is part of the gym's plan to keep members from leaving. This is the girl who is always at the gym, but never uses the gym. She usually selects a guy or two to talk to while she's there and spends her time following him around. Occasionally she will ask him to show her how to work out. You can always spot a GWNWO because she's the only girl in the gym with a matching workoutfit.

Chris Calf is the guy who designed the RS-D2 mailboxes that are starting to pop up all over the US this week promoting the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. Fun to check out the process of how he did the great-looking design.

I took a bit of time tonight to update the blog feed, but I'm now pushing out a Feedburner RSS feed, if you want to subscribe in your various feed readers or Live Bookmarks in Firefox (screenshot above, I wrote about it here a while ago). If you don't know what any of this means, well ... move along, move along.

There's at least 4 geeks out there are proud I updated the autodiscovery tags myself.

Chris Sligh made the OC Register this week, in a great article about faith and Idol worship. American Idol, that is. Here's the first few paragraphs, if it grabs you like it did me, read on:

Now they sing in front of millions on "American Idol," but until recently many of this year's contestants could be found performing in church.

Chris Sligh is the worship leader at Seacoast Church in Greenville, S.C., where he and his wife, Sarah, are active in the congregation. Sligh leads the music during services and fronts the church band. The son of missionaries, Sligh attended Bob Jones University in Greenville and regularly seeks out his pastor for musical advice.

But don't expect him to perform praise music on the hit Fox TV show.

"Chris doesn't want to be the Christian singer; that's not how he sees himself," says Seacoast pastor Chris Surratt, who flew to Los Angeles last week to see Sligh perform. "He's a musician who's a Christian. He doesn't want a label."

How do you mix the sacred and the secular? Very carefully, especially if you're vying for the top spot on the most popular TV show in the country.

Many of this year's contestants honed their skills in church. Now they find themselves in the middle of "Idol" worship.

1up.com has a great new feature this week on signs you know your video game obsession has gone too far. Here's a clip from the piece, sadly I could relate to significant portions of the article:

It's hard to take mainstream media outlets seriously when they warn us about the evils of videogames. Far too often, they still treat videogames as the latest scapegoat for society's ills, and anyone with any knowledge of the medium quickly sees most of their bluster as sensationalist fearmongering conjured up for the sake of creating controversy.

We're gamers, and we know better. But at the same time, if we're being honest with ourselves, many of us would probably admit that there are times when our passion for videogames can become unreasonable, out of control, or even unhealthy. We all know it's the rare, unstable minority that actually tries to imitate Grand Theft Auto with a real gun, or dies from a marathon gaming session in a Korean internet café, but even those of us who normally consider ourselves to be sane, reasonable people can occasionally cross the line when it comes to our beloved pastime.

Friends for SaleSocial networking web sites have put new pressure on kids to measure up. After all, if your MySpace.com page doesn’t list many friends, people may think you don’t have any friends.

Online entrepreneurs have responded with a service that lets introverts “buy” friends for a small monthly fee. FakeYourSpace.com allows you to buy friends, complete with photos and comments, for only 99 cents per friend per month.

Brant Walker, the 26-year-old founder of FakeYourSpace.com says he thought of the idea while cruising MySpace pages and noticing that “some people had good looking friends, and others didn’t.” He says his page can “turn cyberlosers into social-networking magnets.”

Here's a shot from Saddleback's campus tonight overlooking the future Student Zone, looks like the footings are about to be poured. Still about 18 months away from getting, but this feels like a BIG step.

This week we're launching a pretty fun bundle sale on Simply Youth Ministry to celebrate March Madness. We've got a good video as well to check out - I'll post it here via YouTube in just a second. In addition to some solid deals on resources when you buy in a bundle, you can phone in orders for any 3 super series for $99.

This is the only bright spot this year in my basketball world, because my Yahoo NCAA tournament bracket ranking is (no joke) 1,040,036.

This little game is a winner - not exactly groundbreakingly stellar and at times intensely frustrating, but a great throwaway game and some fairly easy achievements to rack up.

Basically its 'your worms against theirs' in a simple team battle - the last man standing's team wins. The premise is fairly basic. The controls are also basic, and the computer at times seems to make impossible shots. The graphics are HD, but definitely not pushing any boundaries compared to a full on 360 title. The pacing of the game is slow, it's most turn-based combat that I wouldn't typically prefer but here it works - it is accomplishing what it sets out to do for sure.

It is a fun game when you've only got an hour and I'm definitely getting more and more into it as I blow through the challenges. I would recommend it, but definitely not over the fantastic Heavy Weapon or above average Roboblitz also in the Live Arcade. B-